Screen Flickering - Help :)

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by ChrisP7, Jan 3, 2017.

  1. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    Firstly, I would just like to say that I am still on the trial version of Parallels and absolutely love it and intend on buying a licence as soon as the trial is up.

    Just upgraded my Mid 2012 MacBook Pro with a 500gb Samsung Evo SSD and put 8gb of RAM in there. Everything is running smoothly and quickly.

    The only problem I have is that when using a chat application, the screen starts to flicker extremely quickly. Everything still loads but the screen flickering makes it unusable.

    Any advise on how to sort this out?

    Many thanks.
     
  2. Raj@Parallels

    Raj@Parallels Guest

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    Please try reinstalling Parallels Tools then observe how it works and keep us posted.
     
  3. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    Hi Raj, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately this didn't fix the problem.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2017
  4. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    11
    Can anyone help?
     
  5. PaulChristopher@Parallels

    PaulChristopher@Parallels Product Expert Staff Member

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    3,158
    Hi ChrisP7, screen flickering occurs due to the lack of video memory assigned to your virtual machine.
    You need to increase the virtual machine's video memory:
    1. Shut down the virtual machine.
    2. Open the virtual machine configuration > switch to the Hardware tab > select the Video (Graphics) option in the left pane.
    3. In the right pane, increase the video memory to 768 MB.
     
  6. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    11
    Thanks Paul,

    I have tried this and unfortunately it has not fixed the problem. It only happens on one application, on everything else it works fine :(
     
  7. PaulChristopher@Parallels

    PaulChristopher@Parallels Product Expert Staff Member

    Messages:
    3,158
    Did you uninstall/reinstall or update that application? Please check it and let us know how it works.
     
  8. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    I've tried that a few times with no success :-(
     
  9. Swati@Parallels

    Swati@Parallels

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    360
    Please change DirectX or 3D Acceleration by following the below steps and keep us posted:
    1. Start Parallels Desktop (Do not start Windows Virtual Machine).
    2. Open Virtual Machine's Configuration > Hardware > Video(Graphics) > Advance setting > DirectX(9,10,disabled) or 3D Acceleration disable(off).
     
  10. BlessB

    BlessB Bit poster

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    3
    I kindda have the same issue. I just got this MacBook Pro 2016 with Touchbar (4 days ago) and while running windows 10 in full screen it started flickering for more than 40 seconds (I was able to film it on my phone see link below)... It stopped all of the sudden and its working fine now. I did a diagnostic test with apple support and he didn't find anything wrong with my laptop... but i schedule an appointment with them to check the hardware just to make sure. Do you think its the laptop or its the parallels software that causing the problem?

    Parallels version 12 for Mac with Parallel tools
    Windows 10
    MacPro 13" 2016 w/ Touchbar
    3.3Ghz i7 | 16GB | 1 TB SDD

    Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3k3snd6upms0foe/MacBook Pro 13" 2016.MOV?dl=0
    The laptop was on battery during this time. After picking up the Skype call from my iPhone the flickers stops.
     
  11. BrianL7

    BrianL7 Bit poster

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    2
    My 2016 MacBook Pro Retina 15" w/ Touch Bar is 4 days old. I use Windows 10 VM in Parallel. Never had any issues until I performed Microsoft Office updates; specifically during the end of the installation process. It continued through to turning the VM off completely. Laptop plugged in and at 100%.

    Parallel version 12 for Mac
    Windows 10
    MacBook Pro 15" 2016 w/Touchbar
    2.7Ghz i7 | 16GB | 512GB SSD

    Video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h0glbpl0hvwlj95/Screen Flicker.mp4?dl=0
     
  12. SK1234

    SK1234 Junior Member

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    14
    I have the very same issue with my 2016 MacBook Pro 13" (Touchbar). This only happens when a Parallels VM (Win 10) is running. Disabling DirectX is not really a solution as the performance is so bad that I can't really work. I hope you guys get this sorted out quickly, otherwise I have to go back to VMware Fusion...

    One more detail: it seems that the flickering mostly starts right before the machine is going into sleep mode (when the display dims).
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2017
  13. SK1234

    SK1234 Junior Member

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    14
    I just did some more testing and found out that the flickering in my case only starts when:
    * the VM is visible (full screen)
    * the sleep mode kicks in and I'm moving the mouse shortly afterwards

    When I switch spaces a couple of times, the flickering is gone again. When I don't have the VM visible (is on a different space) while the sleep mode kicks in, no flickering is happening...
     
  14. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    11
    Thanks for your responses guys, I have tried all of the above but i'm still having the same problem! Getting really frustrated now! I appreciate the help but I have tried everything and its just not solving the problem. Anything else we can try?
     
  15. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    Anyone?
     
  16. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    Not impressed with the after sales support.
     
  17. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    Hellloooooo? Can anyone help?????
     
  18. PaulChristopher@Parallels

    PaulChristopher@Parallels Product Expert Staff Member

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    3,158
    Hello Guys, please try the following steps and let us know the results:
    1. Shut Down virtual machine.
    2. Open Virtual Machine configuration
    3. Go to Hardware > Boot Order > and paste in Boot Flags box:
    video.hw_pointer=0
     
  19. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    11
    Hi there, it works a bit better, but as soon as you open more than 2 or 3 windows, it starts happening again
     
  20. ChrisP7

    ChrisP7 Junior Member

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    11

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